Featured Image: A screengrab of the video showing TMC leader Sheikh Alam making the controversial remarks
In a shocking development harkening back to the days of Direct Action Day and Partition-related violence in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sheikh Alam spoke of uniting 30% Muslims and creating “four Pakistans” in India.
Alam’s controversial remarks drew criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday. BJP leader and the party’s co-in-charge for West Bengal, Amit Malviya tweeted a video that showed Alam making the controversial statements.
Malviya said that Alam made the remarks at Basa para, Nanoor, in Birbhum assembly constituency.
“He obviously owes his allegiance to Mamata Banerjee… Does she endorse this position? Do we want a Bengal like that?”, Malviya asked in his tweet.
Y’day, TMC leader Sheikh Alam, giving a speech in Basa para, Nanoor, in Birbhum AC said, if 30% Muslims in India come together, then 4 Pakistan can be formed…
He obviously owes his allegiance to Mamata Banerjee… Does she endorse this position?
Do we want a Bengal like that? pic.twitter.com/YjAeSzhH5P
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 25, 2021
“TMC leaders like Sheikh Alam have the audacity to dream of 4 Pakistan because of Mamata Banerjee’s brazen appeasement politics over the last 10 years. She reduced the majority community in WB to second grade citizens, where they had to seek court approval even for Durga visarjan!” Malviya said in another tweet.
In the video, Alam could be heard saying: “We minorities are 30%. The rest is 70%. They (BJP) think they will come to power (in Bengal) with this 70%. They should be ashamed…if the 30% minorities unite…if India’s Muslims unite, four Pakistan can be created. Where will India’s 70% go?”
Bengal’s Muslim population is a little over 27%, according to the Census in 2011, when the last such exercise happened. That Census said Muslims accounted for 14.2% of India’s population.
Earlier, in another controversy, West Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim, in an interview with the Pakistani English daily Dawn, proudly described the Garden Reach Vidhan Sabha constituency in South 24 Parganas district as a ‘Mini Pakistan’.
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